It’s been 4 months… and we’re finally cleaning up his house.
We all came together … in our work clothes.  And painted, swept, cleaned out, tossed junk, had dinner together, laughed…
We went through cabinets, closets, the garage, more cabinets… we laughed at the number of broken eye glasses, pocket knives, and pocket-sized magnifying glasses that were stashed in dresser drawers, kitchen cabinets, boxes, etc.

How many pocket sized magnifying glasses does one Granpa need?!  Quite entertaining!
We found stashes of things that were important to him over the years:  awards he won at work, commemorative items he saved from work, foreign coins from his travels, newspaper clippings, programs from friends’ funerals and weddings, the video tape of Gramma’s funeral…

The best part of it all?  We split up the franciscan apple china …

These place settings were on my Gramma’s dining table at every holiday dinner.  One of our most valued inherited pieces… and now we all have a few pieces of it.  We split up the place settings, vegetable/fruit bowls, gravy boats, dessert platters, etc.

And when we left the house we didn’t even say goodbye… it didn’t feel right.  We just left and didn’t look back.

We were too sad… he’s gone.  The house didn’t look like him anymore.  Our memories of him have been dispersed and are now perched on shelves and counters in our own homes.  The memories are there… but he isn’t.

The house is for sale… he’s gone.